Turner Classic Movies Reportedly Safe from Budget Cuts Thanks to Zaslav’s Love of Classic Films

Warner Bros. Discovery has been making an Edward Scissorhands amount of cuts to its budget. From slashing the budgets of their traditional cable programming like TBS, TNT, and TruTV, to dropping entire shows from HBO Max’s library, it has felt like no content is safe from money-saving executives, looking to financially justify the huge merger that brought the Discovery and WarnerMedia together last year.

Because of these widespread cuts and cancellations, many people have feared for the life of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), a channel under WBD’s purview that primarily plays classic cinema. An oasis of old-timey movie content for cinema buffs everywhere, TCM’s vision of artistic preservation seems like exactly the sort of thing to get thrown to the wayside during an expensive corporate merger. While many of the films highlighted on the channel belong to the company’s expansive, century-old library, with the cable business dwindling rapidly, how much money could the prestigious, but admittedly niche, network truly be making for WBD?

Well, according to a recent AV Club interview with hosts from the channel, Turner Classic Movies may not be in trouble after all. According to these hosts, all is well at the little movie network, at least for now.

“Nothing’s changed,” TCM host Alicia Malone said. “We all feel very protective over the channel and we know how precious it is, and increasingly rare. So, not on our watch.”

It makes sense that TCM would feel a certain amount of safety, since WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels has recently said that he's done making cuts to the company’s programming. And in the interview, it becomes clear that WBD CEO David Zaslav may be a big reason why TCM escaped the worst of the cuts. It seems that he’s a big fan of what the work that the channel does.

“He’s so enthusiastic in his support for TCM, and it’s genuine,” TCM host Jacqueline Stewart said. “TCM was on in his office. That’s not just some myth.”

Zaslav is a noted movie buff, the owner of a desk previously used by Warner Bros. founder Jacob Warner. So if his personal tastes are keeping TCM alive and well, film fans should be grateful for the respite from the constant cuts that the early days of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger have seen. And while the cuts seem to be at a pause, at least for now, it will be great for TCM down the line to have the big boss at WBD on their side.